What an amazing day!

We were lucky with the weather despite other places having tremendous rainfall. We had a good number of athletes missing either because they were in Manchester getting very wet at the senior AAA championships, away or injured, however, we were able to fill most spaces and that really helped.

Amazingly, we led from the start, with good results in the first few events – men’s hammer and 300H/400H.

Yate & District were well represented.

Young Kate Howard, first year U17, came a sound 2nd in the U17 300m and then stepped up to U20 for the A 800m and came home a convincing winner, a good 2 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.

Katie Robbins did a similar thing by coming home 2nd in the U20s 400m in a time that equals her personal best, and then ran home winner of the B 800m race in a new PB.

Our other winners for Yate’s women on the track were Rosie Hamilton James U17A 3000 and Emily Whitaker in the U17A 1500s/c.

In the field, Hannah Lewis won the U17A PV, with Fiona Barkley securing 2nds in both U17 LJ and HJ.

On the men’s side, Isaac Cory stormed home to win the U20A 100m in a fantastic race, Nathanael Mitchell won the U20’s 400m B with Abdi Hasan putting in a couple of superb performances’ to win both  the U20s 1500m and 3000m

James Harrod, U17, in his first race back after suffering an appendicitis in March, won the U17 B 3000m.

Our U17 throwers and PV  were dominant with Liam Hillier and Jonathan Mead taking a double 1st in PV,  Toby Conibear and Owen Merrett doing the double in the Hammer, both throwing 30m further than their nearest rivals. In fact James Viner, throwing as a guest came 3rd in the competition, again with a throw 30m clear of the rest. James went on to gain a 2nd in the B Shot and a 3rd in the A Discus. Toby won the B Discus and was placed 2nd in the shot competition while throwing as a guest. Owen won the B Javelin in a new PB of 41.80m after throwing a PB while throwing as a guest in the Discus.

Winning the Regional Final means that Team Avon go on to the National Final in Manchester on Sunday September 8th as League Champions and Regional Champions. Despite beating Birchfield Harriers on Sunday the team will face  Blackheath & Bromley and Shaftesbury Barnet, the 2 top London teams in the Final. Availability forms have gone out and the team will be selected by the end of August.

Leslie Nunn